Pakistan drops plan to name Shadman Chowk after Bhagat Singh, labels him 'terrorist'
PTC News Desk: Pakistan's plan to rename Shadman Chowk in Lahore and build a statue of Bhagat Singh there has been cancelled due to the opinion of a retired military official, the district government of the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province has informed the High Court. In a written statement given to the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday by Assistant Advocate General Asghar Leghari, serious allegations were levied against the freedom fighter and he was labelled a "terrorist".
"A proposed plan of the city district government Lahore to name Shadman Chowk after Bhagat Singh and place his statue there has been scrapped in light of an observation submitted by Commodore (retd.) Tariq Majeed," the Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore said. This was in response to a contempt petition filed by Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation Pakistan Chairman Imtiaz Rasheed Qureshi in the LHC.
Majeed, who was appointed by the government to a committee to rename Shadman Chowk after Singh, claimed in his observations that Singh "was not a revolutionary but a criminal, in today's terms he was a terrorist, he killed a British police officer, and for this crime, he was hanged along with two accomplices".
Majeed suggested to the authorities that the Shadman Chowk should not be named after Bhagat Singh and that his statue not be put there. According to the report, Singh was influenced by "religious leaders hostile to Muslims, and the NGO -- Bhagat Singh Foundation -- is working against Islamic ideology and Pakistani culture, (and) it should be banned".
"Don't the officials of the foundation, who call themselves Muslims, know that it is not acceptable to name a place after an atheist in Pakistan and that Islam prohibits human statues?" it questioned.
Qureshi responded to the allegation on Sunday and said that Bhagat Singh was unquestionably a great revolutionary, freedom fighter, and martyr. "I will send a legal notice to retired Commodore Majeed for levelling serious allegations against the Bhagat Singh Foundation and contest his stance on Bhagat Singh," he said.
Qureshi has named the district government, DC Lahore, Chief Secretary Punjab, and Administrator City District Government as parties in a contempt of court petition filed through Advocate Khalid Zaman Khan Kakar.
- PTC NEWS
